


no dawn, no day, i'm always in this twilight

by badass_normal



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-31
Updated: 2010-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-11 01:22:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badass_normal/pseuds/badass_normal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She believes in coincidence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	no dawn, no day, i'm always in this twilight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cloudytea](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=cloudytea).



The population of New York City is eight million in 2008. Kate doesn't even know ten people who aren't still on the Island.

She slips into a bar. Then she takes off her sunglasses to make sure he is who she thinks he is.

She believes in coincidence. Stubbornly.

\--

Four hours later she's naked and resting her head on his chest and his fingers are stroking her curls and the two of them haven't spoken, not really. Her left breast trembles with her racing pulse.

"You still raising the crazy chick's kid?"

Blunt, insensitive, unashamed. Of course that's what he asks. The Aaron-shaped hole in her heart weeps pathetically while she struggles to swallow the tears clogging her throat.

"Do you think I would really be here with you if I had a son to look after?"

He laughs, a single exhale. "I'm not even gonna pretend I understand why or when Katherine Austen does what she does." He moves a fistful of hair from her eyes and doesn't bother to look at her. "Any man that does is an idiot."

She doesn't say anything. There is nothing to say to a statement like that.

"You're a mystery, Sweetheart."

"You don't know me," she declares far more weakly than ever before. It's actually a true statement this time, too, and she wants to sit up, wants to extricate herself from this humiliation. Wants to rewind an hour or two. Rewrite. Rerecord. She closes her eyes and her lashes flutter.

"Exactly," he mutters into her hair.

\--

"Do you have anyone?"

She says it between little sips from the tiny bottle of vodka. The mini-bar is slowly emptying. She's had the dignity to put on some underwear.

"Nah. I see Miles and Richard occasionally."

She almost doesn't call him on contradicting himself. "See, I actually don't have anyone."

"Now that's no way for a pretty girl like you to live."

Pretty girl. Kate wishes it had ever been that simple.

_I'm better off alone_, she doesn't say. It's been a decade-long project, figuring that one out. Perhaps the hugest thing she's accomplished in a long time. She's not ready to share it.

"It's not so bad," she finally says.

His eyes pity her, and she gulps down the rest of the vodka.

\--

He tucks a piece of paper into her hand on the way out.

"If you ever need anything," he presses his lips to her ear.

She almost throws it in the nearest trash can once she's outside, back into the jungle of the City.

Something keeps it on her fingertips. Something that tastes a little like progress.


End file.
